Jinnah's paternal grandfather was Premjibhai Meghji Thakkar. He was a Lohana from Paneli Moti village in Gondal state in Kathiawar in Gujarat, India.[4] He had made his fortune in the fish business, but he was ostracized from his vegetarian HinduLohana caste because of their strong religious beliefs. When he discontinued his fish business and tried to come back to his caste, he was not allowed to do so. Resultantly, his son, Punjalal Thakkar (the father of Jinnah), was so angry with the humiliation that he changed his and his four son's religion, and converted to Islam.[4] Jinnah’s father Poonjabhai Jinno was a first generation Muslim with Khoja Ismaili belief, however, the next generation switched their belief to Shia Islam.[4]

Contents

The ancestors of Jinnah were Hindu of Lohana caste from Paneli Moti village in Gondal state in Kathiawar in Gujarat, India. But his grandfather was ostracized from the community because of being involved in the fishing business. Therefore his father became Muslim, though they were a liberal family.

Poonjabhai "Jinno" (also referred to as Jina Poonja[9]), a Lohana (1857–1902), was married to Mithhibai.[10]

m. Mithhibai

Poonjabhai Thakkar was a prosperous Gujarati merchant. His Gujarati-language nickname "Zino" or "Jinno" means ‘Skinny.’ He moved to Karachi from Kathiawar, because of his business partnership with Grams Trading Company whose regional office was set up in Karachi. He moved to Karachi before Muhammad Ali Jinnah's birth. He and his wife had 7 children:[11]

Dawn (newspaper) Fact File: "In his youth, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was married to a distant cousin named Emibai from Paneli village in Gujarat at his mother's urging. At the time of their marriage, Jinnah was only 16 and Emibai was 14. The marriage was arranged by his mother because she feared that when Jinnah went to England, he might end up marrying an English girl. The couple hardly lived together as Jinnah sailed from India soon after his marriage and Emibai died few weeks later."[11]

Fatima Jinnah was a dental surgeon, biographer, stateswoman, and one of the leading Founding mothers of modern-state of Pakistan. She also played a pivotal role in civil rights and introduced the women's rights movement in the Pakistan Movement. After her brother's death she continued to play a pivotal role in Pakistani politics and in 1965 returned to active politics by running against Ayub Khan in the 1965 elections.

She had a rift with her father when she expressed her desire to marry a Parsi-born Indian, Neville Wadia. According to M C Chagla in "Roses in December", Jinnah, a Muslim, disowned his daughter after trying to dissuade her from marrying Neville. Dina Wadia was the only direct living link to Jinnah and the nation of Pakistan claiming her father as its own father of the nation is assumed to have some kind of kinship with her according to Akbar S. Ahmed.[15] His descendants through her are part of the Wadia family and reside in India as she married and stayed in India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Dina Wadia lived alone with staff in the New York City, United States.[16] Wadia died at her home in New York on 1 November 2017 at the age of 98. She was suffering from pneumonia (a bacterial lung infection).[17][18][19]

^Ahmed, Akbar (2005). Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin. Routledge. ISBN9781134750221. Although born into a Khoja (from khwaja or 'noble') family who were disciples of the Ismaili Aga Khan, Jinnah moved towards the Sunni sect early in life. There is evidence later, given by his relatives and associates in court, to establish that he was firmly a Sunni Muslim by the end of his life (Merchant 1990).